JP3409657B2 - Vehicle navigation device and storage medium - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation device and a storage medium for providing voice guidance at a road junction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, various route guidance devices have been proposed for smoothly driving on an unguided road. In these devices, by inputting a destination, the driver can drive to the destination. There is a route guidance device that guides an appropriate road. In this route guidance device, when approaching the waypoint,
For example, when turning right (left) at a branch point, "about 300 m
"To the right (left) direction", "To the right (left) direction",
"It will be in the right (left) direction soon", "It will be a toll road" near the entrance of the toll road, "It will be an exit soon" near the exit of the toll road, "It will be a destination soon" when approaching the destination When approaching the stopover point, voice guidance such as "I will stop at this point soon" is given.

[0003]

However, in the conventional device, at the branch point on the guide route, the direction (angle) of the guide road exiting from the branch point is calculated with respect to the road entering the branch point, and "soon. Since the guidance is "right (left) direction", "soon diagonally right (left)",
It may be difficult to understand at a complicated branch point, or the content of voice guidance may not match the actual guide road.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a vehicle navigation device and a storage medium capable of providing easy-to-understand direction guidance even at complicated guidance branch points.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a current position detecting means for detecting the current position of a vehicle, an input means for inputting information necessary for calculating a route, and an information for route guidance are output. Output means, information storage means for storing data required for route guidance, route calculation means for calculating a route based on the information input by the input means, and route calculated by the route calculation means Based on the route calculated by the route calculating unit and the current position detected by the current position detecting unit, the guide information of the next guidance branch point to the output unit. And a guide control unit for outputting, wherein the guide control unit acquires all road information that exits from the guide branch point on the route stored in the route information storage unit, And calculates the angle of a plurality of sampling points for all exits roads, and outputs the direction guidance information based on the calculated angle. Further, the present invention is characterized in that the guidance control means sets the angle of the sampling point farthest from the guidance branch point as the road angle when the angles of the plurality of sampling points are monotonically increasing or decreasing. Further, the present invention is characterized in that the guidance control means sets an average value of angles of the plurality of sampling points as a road angle when the angles of the plurality of sampling points are not monotonically increasing or monotonically decreasing. In addition, the present invention, when there is a link in the branch point,
The guidance control means corrects the coordinates of the sampling point. Further, in the present invention, the guidance control means sets an angle area with reference to an entering road,
It is characterized in that the direction guidance information is output according to which angle area the calculated angle is. Further, the present invention is
When there is a guidance unnecessary road exiting from a guidance branch point, the guidance control means sets an angle area with the guidance unnecessary road as a reference, and outputs direction guidance information according to which angle area the calculated angle is. It is characterized by Further, the present invention is characterized in that the guidance control means changes the content of the direction guidance information depending on whether it is a highway, a general road, or a ramp.

The present invention also includes a current position detecting means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, an input means for inputting information necessary for calculating the route, and an output means for outputting information for route guidance. In a storage medium containing a program for controlling a vehicle navigation device including information storage means for storing data necessary for performing route guidance, a route is searched based on the information input by the input means. Then, based on the current position detected by the current position detecting means, the next guidance branch point on the route is obtained, all the road information from the guidance branch point is acquired, and the road entering the guidance branch point is obtained. , Calculate angles of a plurality of sampling points for all exit roads, read direction guidance information from the information storage means based on the calculated angles, and output it to the output means Characterized in that a built-in program for controlling the vehicle navigation apparatus so that.

[0007]

According to the present invention, information on all roads exiting from a guidance junction is acquired, angles of a plurality of sampling points are calculated for all roads entering the guidance junction, and calculation is performed. By providing various guides not only to the left and right directions but also to the actual road based on the angle, it is possible for the driver to easily understand and match the contents of the actual guide road and the voice guidance.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a navigation device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a navigation device according to the present invention includes an input / output device 1 for inputting / outputting information on route guidance, a current position detecting device 2 for detecting information on the current position of the vehicle, and a navigation necessary for calculating a route. Data storage device 3 and information storage device 3 in which display / voice guidance data necessary for route guidance and programs (applications and / or OSs) and the like are recorded,
It is composed of a central processing unit 4 which performs route search processing and display guidance processing necessary for route guidance and controls the entire system.

The input / output device 1 instructs the central processing unit 4 to perform navigation processing according to the driver's intention so that the driver can input the destination or output the guidance information by voice and / or screen when the driver needs it. In addition, it has a function of printing out the processed data. As a means for realizing the function, the input unit has a touch switch 11 and an operation switch for inputting a destination by a telephone number, coordinates on a map, or requesting route guidance. Of course, an input device such as a remote controller may be used. In the output unit, input data is displayed on the screen, or a display 12 that automatically displays route guidance on the screen in response to a driver's request, data processed by the central processing unit 4, and stored in the information storage device 3 are stored. A printer 13 that prints out the data and a speaker 16 that outputs the route guidance by voice are provided.

Here, a voice recognition device for enabling voice input and a recording card reading device for reading data recorded on an IC card or a magnetic card can be added. In addition, an information center that stores data necessary for navigation and provides information via communication lines at the driver's request, and a notebook-type electronic device that stores driver-specific data such as map data and destination data in advance. It is also possible to add a data communication device for exchanging data with an information source such as a device.

The display 12 is composed of a color CRT or a color liquid crystal display and is necessary for navigation such as a route setting screen based on map data or guidance data processed by the central processing unit 4, a section map screen, an intersection map screen, etc. In addition to outputting all screens in color display, buttons for setting route guidance, guidance during route guidance, and screen switching operations are displayed on this screen. In particular, passing intersection information such as the name of a passing intersection is displayed in a pop-up color on the section map screen at any time.

The display 12 is provided in the instrument panel near the driver's seat, and the driver can confirm the current position of the vehicle by looking at the section map and obtain information on the route from now on. it can. Further, the display 12 is provided with a touch switch 11 corresponding to the display of the function buttons, and is configured to execute the above-mentioned operation based on a signal input by touching the button. The input signal generating means including the button and the touch switch constitutes an input section, but a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

The present position detecting means 2 obtains information by utilizing the present position satellite navigation system (GPS) of the vehicle.
By using the PS receiver 21, the VICS information receiver 22 for obtaining information using FM multiplex broadcasting, radio wave beacons, optical beacons, etc., mobile phones, personal computers, etc., an information center (for example, ATIS) Data transmitter / receiver 23 for bidirectionally communicating information with other vehicles
And an absolute azimuth sensor 24 that detects the traveling azimuth of the vehicle in an absolute azimuth by using, for example, geomagnetism, and a relative azimuth that detects the traveling azimuth of the vehicle in a relative azimuth by using, for example, a steering sensor or a gyro sensor. The sensor 25 and, for example, a distance sensor 26 that detects the traveling distance of the vehicle from the number of rotations of the wheels are used to transmit and receive information regarding the traveling of the vehicle, such as road information and traffic information, and information regarding the current position of the vehicle. It is a device for detecting and transmitting / receiving information on the current position.

The information storage device 3 is an external storage device that stores a navigation program and data, and is composed of, for example, a CD-ROM. The program is a program for performing processing such as route search, a processing program shown in the flowchart of this embodiment, a display output control required for route guidance, a program for performing voice output control required for voice guidance, and Necessary data, and further, display information data necessary for route guidance and map display are stored. Also, the data is map data, search data,
It consists of files such as guidance data, voice guidance phrase data, map matching data, destination data, registration point data, road data, genre data, landmark data, etc., and stores all data necessary for the navigation device. The present invention can be applied to a type in which only data is stored in the CD-ROM and the program is stored in the central processing unit.

The central processing unit 4 has a CPU 40 for executing various arithmetic processes, a flash memory 41 for reading and storing a program from a CD-ROM of the information storage device 3,
ROM 42 storing a program (program reading means) for performing program check and update processing of flash memory 41, set destination point coordinates, road name code No. Based on the display output control signal from the RAM 43, the image memory 44 in which the image data used for the screen display on the display is stored, the RAM 43 for temporarily storing the searched route guidance information and the data being calculated. An image processor 45, C for extracting image data from the image memory 44, performing image processing and outputting the image data to a display.
Information storage device 3 based on audio output control signal from PU
The speaker 1 which synthesizes the voice, the phrase, the sentence, the sound, etc. read from
6, a voice processor 46 for outputting to 6, a communication interface 47 for exchanging input / output data by communication, a sensor input interface 48 for taking in a sensor signal of the current position detection device 2, and a date and time for writing internal diagnostic information. It is equipped with a clock 49 and the like. Here, the route guidance is performed by screen display and voice output, and the presence or absence of voice output can be selected by the driver.

The program for performing the above-mentioned update process may be stored in an external storage device. The programs according to the present invention and other programs for executing navigation may all be stored in a CD-ROM that is an external storage medium, or some or all of these programs may be stored in the ROM 42 on the main body side. Good.

Various navigation functions are realized by inputting data and programs stored in the external storage medium as external signals to the central processing unit of the navigation apparatus body and performing arithmetic processing.

The navigation device according to the present invention, as described above, has a relatively large capacity flash memory 41 for reading a program from the CD-ROM of the external storage device.
A small-capacity ROM 42 storing a program (program reading means) for performing a CD startup process is built in.
The flash memory 41 is a non-volatile storage means that retains stored information even when the power is turned off. Then, as the CD startup processing, the program of the ROM 42, which is the program reading means, is activated to check the program stored in the flash memory 41, and the disc management information of the CD-ROM of the information storage device 3 is read. Program loading process (update process)
It is performed by judging from this information and the state of the flash memory 41.

2 to 4 show examples of the structure of main data files stored in the information storage device 3 according to the present invention shown in FIG. FIG. 2A shows a guide road data file in which data necessary for calculating a route by the route calculating means and performing route guidance is stored. For each number of roads n, the road number, length, and road Address of attribute data, shape data, address of size and guidance data,
It consists of each size data. The road number is set for each of the roads between the branch points (direction, return). As shown in FIG. 3 (A), the road attribute data as road guidance auxiliary information day includes information on the number of lanes, whether the road is an elevated road, an elevated road, an underpass, an underpass, a branch data ( A flag indicating whether or not there is a branch) and lamp data (a flag indicating whether or not there is a branch). As shown in FIG. 2B, when the road is divided into a plurality of nodes, the shape data has coordinate data of east longitude and north latitude for each m node number.

As shown in FIG. 2C, the guidance data includes intersection (or branch point) name, caution point data, road name data, road name voice data address, size and destination data address, size. It consists of each data. As shown in FIG. 4A, the caution data is data indicating information such as railroad crossings, tunnel entrances, tunnel exits, width reduction points, and no cautions. It is data for calling the driver's attention in the case such as As shown in FIG. 3B, the road name data includes information on road types of highways, urban highways, toll roads, general roads (national roads, prefectural roads, etc.), highways, urban highways, and toll roads. It is data indicating information indicating whether the road is a main line or an installation road, and is composed of road type data and an in-type number which is individual number data for each road type.

As shown in FIG. 2D, the destination data includes a destination road number, a destination name, an address of destination name voice data, a size and a destination direction data, and travel guidance data. The destination name also includes a direction name. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2E, the destination direction data is invalid (does not use the destination direction data), unnecessary (does not require guidance), straight ahead, rightward, diagonally rightward, rightward return, leftward. Data indicating the direction, the diagonal left direction, and the direction returning to the left. The driving guidance data is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, data for guiding which lane to drive when there are a plurality of lanes is stored, and is data indicating information from the right, the left, the center, or none.

In the data structure of FIG. 2, the road data stores the information about the intersection. However, as shown in FIG. 5, the intersection data is provided separately from the road data, and the presence / absence of a traffic signal and the crosswalk data are stored. , Branch feature data, road data entering an intersection, road data exiting an intersection,
Information such as landmark data may be stored. However, if the road data has connection information, it is easier to have data such as that a certain road cannot enter from a certain road,
The amount of data is small.

FIG. 6 shows an example of guidance phrase data for voice guidance. A guidance sentence is divided into distance phrases, direction phrases, and characteristic phrases, and when outputting guidance voice data, each phrase is combined. Then, for example, a message such as "I will turn right soon" is created and output at the set guidance branch point. In the present invention, as will be described later, in order to obtain information about all the roads exiting from the guidance junction, and to provide detailed direction guidance based on the relative positional relationship of the exit roads and their directions, go straight (straight), slightly right (left). Direction (slight right (left) turn), right turn (right bear), left turn (left bear), road (keep), right road (keep right), left road (key left),
A wealth of phrase data such as forks, sharp right turns (sharp right turns), sharp left turns (sharp left turns), entrances and exits are available.

Next, the processing flow of the vehicle navigation device of the present invention will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the entire system of the vehicle navigation device according to the present invention.

When the CPU 51 of the central processing unit 4 activates the program of the route guidance system, the current position detecting device 2 detects the current position, displays the peripheral map around the current position, and displays the name of the current position. Etc. are displayed (step S1). Next, a destination is set using a target name such as a place name or a facility name, a telephone number, an address, a registration point, etc. (step S2), and a route search from the current position to the destination is performed (step S3). When the route is determined, the current position is traced by the current position detection device 2 and the route guidance / display is repeatedly performed until the destination is reached (step S4). When the detour setting is input before reaching the destination, the search area is set, the search is performed again in the search area, and the route guidance is repeated until the destination is reached. The present invention relates to a case where voice guidance is provided in the route guidance at the guidance branch point in the route guidance / display in step S4.

The present invention is characterized in that all roads exiting from the guidance branch point are acquired to provide more detailed voice guidance. First, the road acquisition of the branch point will be described. In performing voice guidance at an intersection, until now, an angle was calculated from the relationship between the road on the route entering the intersection and the road on the route, and the content of the voice guidance was determined based on the angle. However, with this method, as shown in Fig. 8, when there is no great difference in the angles of the roads 1 and 2 with respect to the roads that enter, guidance such as "it is rightward" is given to both roads 1 and 2. It is difficult to differentiate the guidance for the two roads. Therefore, in order to differentiate the roads 1 and 2 by voice at the intersection in such a case, all the roads exiting from the intersection are acquired.

First, referring to FIG. 9, a method of acquiring a road exiting from an intersection when there is no intra-intersection link will be described. The circles are nodes (intersections), and the bold lines are routes. In FIG. 9, roads a, b, c, and d are facing roads, and the route is ad. At that time, roads b, c, and d that exit the road a at the intersection in FIG.

Next, the road acquisition when there is an intra-intersection link will be described. Here, the link within the intersection means that the place that is originally the site of the intersection is created in terms of data,
It is a fictitious road that occurs because it is represented by lines and nodes.
The conditions for road acquisition at such an intersection are as follows. Of the roads exiting from an intersection, all consecutive links within an intersection are not treated as exit roads but are postponed, and roads that are no longer links within an intersection are treated as roads exiting from that intersection. Those that are not on the route and do not have the attribute of an in-intersection link are treated as roads exiting from that intersection.

FIG. 10 is an example of an intersection in which an intra-intersection link exists. In the figure, ∘ indicates nodes (1 to 5), j to n indicate roads having intra-intersection link attributes, and roads a to i are separated into upper and lower lines. The one-way traffic and the route are aj-lg. Node 1
The roads exiting from are b and j. The road b is treated as an exit road because it does not have the link attribute in the intersection. Also, j
Is a road having an intra-intersection link attribute on the route, it is postponed, and the roads k and l from node 2 are targeted.
Road k is postponed because it has an intra-intersection link attribute, and roads d and e from node 3 are targeted. d and e
Has no intra-intersection link attribute and is treated as an exit road. On the other hand, since the road 1 is a road having an intra-intersection link attribute on the route, it is postponed and the node 5
Roads m and g exiting from are targeted. Road g is treated as a road that exits because it is on the route and does not have the intra-intersection link attribute. Further, since the road m is the road having the first intra-intersection link attribute that exits from the route, it is postponed and the roads i and n that exit from the node 4 are targeted. Road i does not have the link attribute in the intersection and is therefore treated as an exit road. However, since n is a road having an intra-intersection link, it is postponed, and road b and road j have already been processed and are not treated as exit roads. Therefore, the roads at this intersection are b, d, e, g, and i.

After acquiring all the roads exiting from the intersection in this way, the direction of each road is determined. The method of calculating the road angle for that purpose will be described below.
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a road angle calculation method for an intersection that does not have an intra-intersection link. In FIG. 11, when calculating the angles of the roads 1 and 2 that exit from the road that enters the intersection a, the point that has returned 20 m from the road that enters the intersection a (point b in FIG. 11) is the reference point for angle calculation. . next,
Sampling three points on the road. Here, 20m, 40m, 60m points of the road leaving the intersection (Road 1
Then, sample points c, d, and e). However, when the length of the road is 60 m or less, the remaining distance is calculated using the guide-free road that exits from the road. That is, the exit road 2 is located at another intersection (end point of road 2) at the 30m point.
There is a 20m point f of the exit road 2 and the exit road 2
40m, 60m points g and h on the road that does not require guidance on the extension of
Sample points and. When there is no guidance unnecessary road, the end point of the sampled road is sampled as the point. Finally, the angles of the sampling points (the angles formed by the line connecting the reference point and the sampling point with respect to the line connecting the reference point and the intersection) are calculated, and these angles increase with increasing distance from 20 m, 40 m, and 60 m, Alternatively, if there is a decreasing tendency, the angle of the farthest 60 m is acquired as the angle of the road. In the case of the exit road 1, the angle tends to decrease, so the angle at point e is acquired. When the tendency is not the increasing tendency or the decreasing tendency, the average value of the three sampled angles is acquired as the angle of the road.

Next, a method of calculating an angle of an intersection having a road having the attribute of an intra-intersection link will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, when there is a road having the attribute of the intra-intersection link on the other side of the guidance intersection, the road exiting from the intersection is a road that can be acquired as a result of being postponed until it does not have the intra-intersection link attribute. In a), a is the entering road, b (broken line) is the link inside the intersection,
c is an exit road, d is a guidance intersection, e is a guidance unnecessary point, and f is another exit road. Here, as shown in FIG. 12B, the starting point of the exiting road c is moved in parallel to the guidance intersection d. In FIG. 12 (b), c1 is a parallel translation of the exit road c, and g is the angle of the road c. Next, 20 m, 40 m, and 60 m points are sampled from the start point, and the angle of each sampling point is calculated and increased in the same manner as in the case of FIG. 11 with 20 m before the intersection d of the road entering the end as a reference. If there is a tendency or a decreasing tendency, the angle of the point of 60 m is acquired as the angle of the road, and if not, the average value of the three sampled angles is taken as the angle of the road.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a processing flow of angle calculation. First, the coordinates of a point (reference point) 20 m before the intersection of the entering road and the coordinates of the intersection are acquired (steps 11 and 12), and then 20 m of the road exiting from the intersection,
The coordinates of the 40 m and 60 m points and the starting point coordinates of the exit road are acquired (steps 13 and 14). Next, it is judged whether or not there is an intra-intersection link (step 15). If the intra-intersection link exists, the start point of the exit road is translated to the intersection, and the coordinates of the sample point of the exit road are corrected. (Step 16). Next, the angle from the road entering at each sampling point is calculated (step 17), and it is determined whether the calculated angle has an increasing or decreasing tendency for each sampling point (step 18). If the angle of the sample point is increasing or decreasing, it is adopted as the angle of the road leaving the angle of 60m point, and if the angle of the sample point is not increasing or decreasing, take the average value of the angle of each sample point. , Adopted as the angle of the road exiting it.

In this way, after all the angles of the roads leaving the intersection are calculated, the directions of those roads are determined. The following voice direction guidance is performed by calculating the angle of the road to determine the direction and reading the corresponding guidance phrase data from the table of FIG. 6 as described above.
The present invention is not limited to this, and the direction determination may be performed using the destination direction data of FIG. 3E, or the angle calculation described above and the destination of FIG. The direction may be discriminated using the direction data together. Regarding the correspondence between the direction of the road and the guidance phrase, a table in which the guidance phrase is associated with each angle range is stored in the information storage device, and the voice guidance is performed with reference to the table.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining the processing flow of the direction determination. First, the road name data (see FIG. 3 (B)) is searched to determine whether the traveling road is a highway or a general road (step 21). If it is a general road, it is determined whether or not there is a branch attribute (step 22). This processing is performed by referring to the branch flag of the road attribute data,
If there is a branch attribute, branch guidance as shown in FIG. 15 is performed (step 23). Since there are actually some branches that do not have a branch flag in the data, a method of searching all incoming and outgoing roads to determine whether or not there is a branch is also used.

Guidance when this branch attribute is present will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 15A shows a case where the road data has a branch flag and the road branches equally on the left and right.
This is an example in which voice guidance is given as a left road (key left) when going left, and a right road (keep right) when going right. In FIG. 15B, the road data has a branch flag,
When the road goes straight and splits equally on the left and right, it will be a left road if you go left (key left), a right road if you go right (keep right), and a straight road if you go straight (straight). This is an example. FIG. 15C shows a case where the road data has a branch flag, and there is a road that branches equally on the left and right, and two roads that slightly bend to the left and right between them. (Key left), when turning slightly to the left, move slightly to the left (slight
Left turn), a slight right turn to the right (slight right turn), and a right turn to the right (keep right). Figure 1 shows the relationship between left and right roads (key left / right) and left turns (left turns) and right turns (right turns).
As shown in FIG. 5 (d), for the road entering, the road in the range of θ (= 120 °) on each side (the shaded area in the figure) is not guided as a road (keep), but on the right. Turn left (right / left turn) or sudden right / left (sharp right / left turn).

If there is no branch attribute in step 22 of FIG. 14, it is determined whether or not there is a ramp attribute by referring to the ramp flag of the road attribute data (step 24). If there is a ramp attribute, it is shown in FIG. Voice guidance as in the example is given. FIG. 16A shows a case where there is a ramp that branches off from the main line, and when the main line continues as it is, voice guidance is given such as a road (keep) and a bend (bear) when exiting the ramp. . The bear has a lamp attribute, and is mainly used when turning across an oncoming lane.

FIG. 16 (b) shows a case of exiting from a ramp or a ramp branching left and right from a main line. In either case, a bear, a keep, or a fork is guided according to the angle. In this case, the bear has a greater bend than the keep and the fork is used for an intermediate angle between the bear and the turn. There are left and right roads (key left / right), left turn (left turn), right turn (right
The relationship of (turn) is the same as in the case of FIG.
For the road in the range of θ (= about 120 °) (hatched portion in the figure) in FIG. 16D, keep, bear, and
Do not use a fork, but guide with a right / left turn (right / left turn) or a sudden right / left turn (sharp right / left turn).

If there is no ramp attribute in step 24 of FIG. 14, it is determined whether or not it is a three-way road by referring to the intersection data (step 26). In the case of a three-way road, the voice guidance as shown in FIG. 17 is performed. Figure 17 (a) shows a one-way street,
This is a case of left and right roads that go out within the range of θ = 120 ° shown in the figure with respect to the straight ahead direction, and is an example of voice guidance for the left road (key left) and the right road (keep right), respectively. . FIG. 17 (b) shows a case of left and right roads going out from the bidirectional road within the range of θ = 120 ° shown in the figure with respect to the straight traveling direction.
This is an example in which bear left is voice-guided and left road (key left) and right road (keep right) are voice guided in some areas. FIG. 17C shows the contents of the voice guidance in each direction, and θ = 120 ° shown with respect to the straight traveling direction.
Within the range, go straight or bear left or bear right, and outside that range, turn left or right or turn sharply.

If it is not a three-way road at step 26 in FIG. 14, normal voice guidance as shown in FIG. 18 is performed. FIG. 18 (a) shows a case where there is a guide-free road, and a slight left turn and a slight right turn to the guide-free road are bear left and bear right, respectively, and straight ahead is bare left or bear light depending on the angle to the guide-unnecessary road. Voice guidance will be given, and the left and right areas will be turned to the outside of the bare left and bare lights, and a sudden right and left turn will be made to the outside. FIG. 18B shows a case where there is no guidance-free road, and guidance is provided for straight ahead, slight right / left turn, right / left turn, and sudden right / left turn depending on the angle.

In the case of the expressway in step 21 of FIG. 14, it is judged whether or not there is a branch attribute. If there is no branch attribute,
As in the example shown in FIG. 19, highway guidance is provided. In FIG. 19, number 1 indicates a highway, number 2 indicates a junction (JC), number 3 indicates a lamp, and number 4 indicates a service area / parking area (SA / PA). Figure 1
9 (a) is from Expressway 1 to Expressway 1 and JC2, or SA /
It is a branch to PA4, keep on highway 1, JC2,
In this example, a bear is guided to the road to SA / PA4.
FIG. 19B shows a branch from the highway 1 or JC2 to the highway 1 and the ramp 3. In this example, the highway 1 is kept and the ramp 3 is guided to the exit. FIG. 19C shows the lamp 3.
Is a branch to the left and right lamps 3, and is an example in which the fork, the keep, and the bear are guided according to the angle. Figure 1
9 (d) is a branch from SA / PA4 to JC2 and SA / PA4, and is an example of guiding keep and bear, respectively. In this way, the guidance control means determines the road attribute and the attachment angle, determines the phrase to be guided, and outputs the guidance information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a navigation device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a main data file according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of intersection data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of guide phrase data.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the entire system.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of road acquisition at an intersection.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of road acquisition at an intersection without an intra-intersection link.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of road acquisition at an intersection having an intra-intersection link.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a road angle calculation method for an intersection that does not have an intra-intersection link.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a method of calculating an angle of a road exiting from an intersection having a road having a link attribute in the intersection.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a processing flow of angle calculation.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of direction determination.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating guidance when there is a branch attribute.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating guidance when there is a lamp attribute.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating guidance in the case of a three-way road.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating normal guidance.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating highway guidance.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input / output device, 2 ... Present position detection device, 3 ... Information storage device, 4 ... Central processing unit, 11 ... Touch switch, 12
... display, 13 ... printer, 16 ... speaker, 2
1 ... GPS receiver, 22 ... Beacon receiver, 23 ...
Data transmitting / receiving device, 40 ... CPU, 41 ... Flash memory, 42 ... ROM, 43 ... RAM, 44 ... Image memory, 45 ... Image processor, 46 ... Voice processor, 4
7 ... communication interface, 48 ... sensor input interface, 49 ... clock

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Koji Kishi 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Toyota Motor Corporation (72) Inventor Peter Kuhnen Belgium Brenn LaRue Avenue de Lindustrie 19-1420 Ar de Bourbe Oropes Within Ar (56) Reference JP-A-6-34380 (JP, A) JP-A-7-325999 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G08G 1/0969 G19B 29/00-29/10

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A current position detection means for detecting a current position of a vehicle, an input means for inputting information necessary for calculating a route, an output means for outputting information for route guidance, and a route guidance. Information storage means for storing data necessary for execution, route calculation means for calculating a route based on the information input by the input means, and route information storage for storing information of the route calculated by the route calculation means Means, and guidance control means for outputting guidance information of the next guidance branch point to the output means based on the route calculated by the route calculation means and the current position detected by the current position detection means. the guidance control unit acquires all of the road information coming out of the guide branch point on the route information storage means the stored path, relative to a road entering the guidance branch point, out of all A road
The vehicle navigation device is characterized in that the angles of a plurality of sampling points are calculated, and the direction guidance information is output based on the calculated angles. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guide control means sets the angle of the sampling point farthest from the guide branch point as the road angle when the angles of the plurality of sampling points monotonically increase or decrease. A vehicle navigation device characterized by the above. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guidance control means sets an average value of angles of the plurality of sampling points as a road angle when the angles of the plurality of sampling points are not monotonically increasing or monotonically decreasing. A vehicle navigation device characterized by the above. 4. The vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the guidance control means corrects the coordinates of the sampling point when an intra-branch point link exists. 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guidance control means sets an angle area with reference to an incoming road and outputs direction guidance information according to which angle area the calculated angle is. A vehicle navigation device characterized by the above. 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guidance control means sets an angle area with the guidance-free road as a reference when there is a guidance-free road exiting from a guidance junction.
A navigation device for a vehicle, which outputs direction guidance information according to which angle area the calculated angle is. 7. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the guidance control means changes the content of the direction guidance information depending on whether it is a highway, a general road, a branch, or a ramp. Navigation device. 8. A current position detection for detecting a current position of a vehicle
Enter the means and the information needed to calculate the route
Force means and output means for outputting information for route guidance
And information required for route guidance is stored.
A vehicle navigation device equipped with
Search for a route based on the information input by the input means in a storage medium containing a control program
Based on the current position detected by the current position detecting means.
I come, asked the following guidance branch point on the route, to get all of the road information coming out of the guide branch point, for the road to enter the guide branch point, for all of the out road
Calculate the angles of a plurality of sampling points and read the direction guidance information from the information storage means based on the calculated angles.
To output to the output means, the vehicle navigation
A storage medium having a built-in program for controlling the device .